If you follow this column, you’ll realise that at QER, one of our favourite things to do is watching the world oil price. I know… we need to get some more interesting hobbies. But from QER’s point of view, the oil price is an indicator of how close we are to being able to finance a commercial project.

Congratulations to Dr Kerry Blackman who last week was honoured by CQU. Kerry is a representative of the Port Curtis Coral Coast Indigenous group which includes people of Baiali, Gurang, Gooreng Gooreng and Taribelang Bunda peoples, who traditional lands include the Gladstone through to Bundaberg areas.

Like most people, I worry about events in the world at the moment – especially the conflict that seems to be escalating on the Korean Peninsula. One aspect that we don’t often think about is how interdependent we are with countries like Korea and Japan.

I recently was fortunate to hit the big smoke to attend a three day gathering of people from the resources industry Australia wide, who work with communities. The gathering was organized by the International Council of Mining and Metals.

Some members of QER’s Retort Feed Test Unit (RFTU) Operations team recently took some time out to work on the Boat Creek Rehabilitation Project. QER has participated in this community project for several years.